A study published in the Clinical Pediatrics journal found that every hour, on average, a child is sent to a U.S. emergency room because of a high chair related accident.
The study was done by Dr. Gary Smith and colleagues at the Center for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, Reuters reports. 9,500 young children, between 2003 and 2010, went to the emergency room with a high chair related injury.
The most common injury was one to the head, usually concussions or cuts and bruises. "One of the things we need to be aware of is a high chair elevates a child above what a typical chair would," Smith said.
Smith found that the injuries scaled upwards towards 2010. "By the end of the study in 2010, there were around 11,000 kids being seen every year."
According to the New York Daily News, the study used data provided from the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System, which is database that is done under the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.
Smith said that they weren't sure why cases increased so much towards the end. However, in the past few years, there have been many recalls on high chairs as they often failed standards. Despite recalls though, only about 10 percent to 20 percent of recalled items are sent back to the store.
The study found that a common occurrence for injury is that the high chair's restraints were not used. "You need to use restraints every time. That is really the take-home message," Smith said.
image: Wikimedia Commons
